It's always tough to get traffic to your tradeshow stand or booth no matter what size show you have. Your mission should you choose to accept it: talk to as many people as possible. How do you compete with those that might have deeper pockets than you to get people to know you're even there?
Here are some ideas we've seen business have some good luck with.
The T-shirt giveaway - Print up inexpensive t-shirts and give them to people who visit your booth. One time each day if someone is "caught" wearing the t-shirt they get a prize or money. You get free advertising for your booth! It was a great idea we picked up at ebay live.
Bags - Tradeshow visitors need bags to get all of the free schwag and materials they collect. Why not print up bags with your logo on them as a giveaway or sponsor the bags if the show gives them away?
Pins - At ebay Live this is serious stuff. Twice a day ebay gives out a new pin to add to a collection of 5. If you've got all 5 you get a chance to enter to win a grand prize. VerticalResponse printed up our own coveted pin!
Bingo Cards - We've partnered with other complementary businesses at a show. We print up a brochure with a grid on it. Each participating company has a logo printed in each of the boxes. Visitors need to get stamped from each of the businesses in order to enter to win. It's a great traffic driver. Make sure all of the participating companies have enough of the brochures to give away and each one has a stamp.
Raffle Tickets - We've seen people give away half of a raffle ticket for something of value with drawing times on the hour. The top of the hour drives the most traffic.
Include on Your Website and Emails - Whenever you send a newsletter, you should be including a note about your participation in the show. Also if you've got room on your home page, it's a great idea to include it there as well. Lastly, if you segment your list by the zip code where the tradeshow is located, send an email to those people with your offer or invitation to visit your stand.
Email the Show List - Sometimes the tradeshow organizers will provide a list of attendees who have opted in to receive emails from the show sponsors. Make sure you ask for this if they provide it. Then you can send an email introducing your company along with any of the ideas or offers above you'll be providing.
Direct Mail - Often times email is not available on the attendee list however postal information is. We've seen people do weekly campaigns leading up to the show, 4 weeks in advance with a different "reason this week" to stop by the booth. Even better? Print an offer to bring the card to the booth for something free.
List Swap - If you know of another company going to the show why not propose to include them in an email/direct mail if they include you? They you both potentially double the size of your visitors.
Bottom line? Once you do get people to the booth NO ONE should leave a conversation with you without giving you their information for follow up. You paid money to be there, you need to make it back! Give us some of your own ideas
This is an interesting idea for T-shirt giveaway – integrating ideas like these with an overall experience can have a lot of
benefits for companies.
Posted by: pop up displays | October 26, 2010 at 05:27 AM
You are so right about the giveaway bags at tradeshows. If anyone is looking for a great selection and price, go where I did. http://www.theexecutiveadvertising.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWCATS&Category=122
My totes were a huge hit. And thanks for the idea about the list swap. Good Idea. Ann S.
Posted by: Ann S. | June 23, 2008 at 10:32 AM